Sunday, 7 December 2014

So we recently went on a fabulous, amazing, fun filled and totally off the charts awesome trip to Punta Mita, Mexico!

11 days of sun and sand an salt water and play. It was exactly what we needed.

Our family of 6 can get a little spread out at times. Our oldest son is almost 21 and spends most of his time either at work or with his lovely girlfriend. My husband works away from town 5 days a week and only has 1 full day at home which is basically split between catching up on sleep, running errands and trying to spend the spaces in between with his family.

Disconnection.

It's dangerous. It's so easily to put things off.

Oh, I'm busy this week but let's plan a coffee date for next week.

Mommy is tired today but I promise I'll help you with your project tomorrow.

Yeah, I am aware that we haven't made love for 3 weeks babe, but I'm so done for today. How does next Friday sound?

This little 11 day trip certainly wasn't everything, but it was pretty damned close.

All of the kids bonded and had so much fun together playing in the ocean, playing in the pool, playing on the beach....

AND they shared a room so that meant that hubby and I got a room for ourselves! A lot of planning went into that little nugget, let me tell you.

I bought lingerie. Like, real, proper lingerie.

Black thongs and a teddy and a strappy, uncomfortable bra that gave me pointy boobs and for some reason I deemed sexy.

Waxing and eating a lot of pineapple ( you know what they say about eating a lot of pineapple ) and exfoliating and smelling amazing.

Yeah, vacation sex was the plan because vacation sex is the best sex you'll ever have, ever ever.

But dude, each night we were so tired and spent and done that those plans kind of fell flat from night 1. I mean, who has the energy to have sex after 6 hours of snorkelling?

Anyways, beyond the no sex and beyond the sea water gross hair and beyond the dozens of bug bites and beyond the disgusting buffet food that made us all feel like we had scarfed down McCrap all day long....

Let me first say that, I've done this before. I've read and educated myself and been outraged but never like this.

Maybe I just wasn't ready before. Maybe there was part of me that was just afraid of what I'd feel when I truly began to understand what I was eating.

But I get it now. I get it and feel it.

I mean, I sat at my kitchen table last week crying, sobbing, to my husband about the ways that cows are treated in California.

John Robbins wrote this beautiful collection of essays about where our food is coming from.

He speaks candidly and compassionately and fiercely but without any condesending tones. There is no " meat eaters are the devil " tone here. Just pure empathy and enlightenment...which really is the only thing I'll listen to.

I learned about cattle in the US and how most of these cows are treated. I learned about pollution and waste and the horrific lives these animals lead only to be followed up with a horror movie fit death.

I live in Canada so I'm generally not eating a lot of what is coming out of the US beef industry but that's of little consequence. I am still enraged and saddened and shameful of what is happening.

Mr. Robbins also writes of where our cheap coffee and our cheap chocolate is coming from.

I can honestly say that upon reading this book I vowed to never, ever purchase from Hershey again.

But the worst, the offenders who are the absolute worst are Nestle and Kraft. These companies not only knowingly and intently use child slaved cocoa farms but refuse to do anything about it.

Ferrero Rocher, Russell Stover, Whitman's ( my ex-personal favourite ) Lindt, Dove and M&M/Mars are making hundreds of millions in profits every year selling their genetically modified crap to the masses. This crap that is, quite literally, born of abuse and death.

I can't change it all. Me, sitting her in my home office tapping away at my keyboard, I'm not much.

But I am willing and able to try.

Please, if you have any intererest in helping to change the world, read a little bit about what is going on. Pick up a copy of No Happy Cows. Visit John Robbins' website and spend 5 minutes finding out about what's happening when we aren't looking.